Tuesday 29 November 2011

Top ten drivers of the year

Top ten time, to read the full list click here for the first part of my run down list drivers 28 to 11. Looking at the list, I’m even surprised with whom I’ve been left with, but I’m basing their positions on how they have dealt with their situations through the year.
10. Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) 26pts; Best Result (BR): 7th x2 – So I’ve learnt recently, Alguersuari could have lost his seat half way through the year but his eighth in Valencia activated a performance clause in his contract that enabled him to stay. Good thing too because he’s been awesome in the second half often maximising his strategy to pull himself up from a low grid position into the points, the Italian race a fine demonstration of this; 18th to 7th. Should definitely be on the grid next year, he’s on an upward curve.
9. Paul di Resta (Force India) 27pts; BR: 6th – By far the best rookie of the year, particularly at the start of the year he was destroying his team mate Adrian Sutil. He was fast, calm and assured; the most impressive rookie since Lewis Hamilton. His drives in Hungary and Singapore were brilliant and his qualifying in Britain to take 6th inspired. It faded a bit towards the end of the year, but he’ll be back stronger next year and looks like he’s kept his seat ahead of Sutil.
8. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 42pts; BR: 6th x2 – Ok, this one is probably slightly against the grain. Everyone has lauded how wonderful di Resta is, and quite right too, but they seem to have forgotten that Sutil actually had a very fine year indeed. Yes, he seemed a bit overwhelmed to begin with, but it was good the way he refocused and quickly got back on track; out-performing him during the second half of the year. It may surprise you to know he actually out qualified di Resta 10-9 and out raced him 10-6, and to further that out pointed him 42-27. All in all Sutil has driven some great races, not least the last one in Brazil to finish up 6th.
7. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) 76pts; BR: 4thThere was a question mark where Schumacher should go. He’s been soundly thrashed in qualifying by his team mate, taken quite the liking to a spot of crashing into people, yet after all that he’s actually had quite a good year. His race pace has been mostly brilliant; he’s certainly lost none of his metronomic consistency. His attacking and defensive skills are always border line but no one can push things to the edge like him. His drives in Canada, Belgium and Italy were high quality. If he can find his qualifying pace next year and keep out of trouble Nico Rosberg will be under considerable threat.
6. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 89pts; BR: 5th x2 – Rosberg had to go ahead of his team mate for the main reason he out qualified and outscored him. He can’t really do much more against a seven times world champion. His quali pace particularly has been brilliant putting the Mercedes higher than it should have been and only once this year has he been outside the top 10. However, I still can’t help but feel he’s been a little bit disappointing, because far more often than not he slips down during the race. Yes he may well have out-performed the car on the Saturday’s but when your team mate is generally quicker in the race and moving forward it makes you wonder if he could be doing that little bit better. Having said that, it was still a good consistent year.
5. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 258pts; BR: 1 win – Why Mark Webber is in the top five I’m not entirely sure. It’s not like he’s actually had that bad of a year; he’s won a race, had a further eight podiums and three pole positions. It’s not that bad, but after the battling performance of last year where he so nearly won the title against his team mate, he has been given a monumental beating. He’s only finished ahead of him twice in the entire year, nowhere near enough for a driver of his calibre.  His failure to get to grips with the Pirelli tyres has held him back and his starts have been appalling, leaving him wasting an opportunity with the best car in the field.
Yet he’s still shown just what a racer he can be. Some of his passes, against Alonso in Belgium in particular were absolutely breath taking. On his day he can still produce the form he had last year, his charge through to third from the back in China was a great result. The last few races he’s looked sharper, hopefully that’ll give him the impetus into next year.
4. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 227pts; BR: 3 wins – Well he messed up this year didn’t he? But I’m still going to rate him at number 4, because quite frankly he’s not just lost all his talent, and some of his drives have been phenomenal. First the bad stuff; beaten over the year by Jenson Button, too many accidents with other people, too much letting outside problems get the better of him and effect his head. Some of the incidents with Massa particularly didn’t feel malicious or overly aggressive, more just clumsy, someone with his mind not on the job at hand.
But then you had drives like China, Germany and Abu Dhabi. Fantastic wins all of them; his defence of second in Korea equalled them all. And let’s not forget he’s one of the quickest guys out there and still an amazing over taker, he also generally out qualifies Button but this year has lapsed in the race. There were signs towards the end of this season he was getting his head straight, and I think he will be a truly formidable opponent in 2012.
3. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 257pts; 1 win – He’s done what he always does, maximises the opportunities in any given circumstance. The Ferrari has not been a good car this year, very often it is the third fastest out there. It’s qualifying pace is poor, although it goes much better in the race it still can’t handle the harder tyre compounds.
Yet Alonso has still managed ten podiums including one win at Silverstone. His drive in Monaco was outstanding as he hunted down Vettel, he may well have won if the race hadn’t been stopped. He’s almost humiliated his team-mate, Massa hasn’t been able to get close. Out-performed the car by a long way, there’s not much more he could have done.
2. Jenson Button (McLaren) 270 pts; 3 wins – No one beats Lewis Hamilton over a year without being very good indeed. In many ways he could be driver of the year; he’s the only one to consistently challenge Vettel and actually give him a race. He’s had absolute genius performances in Canada and Hungary, but it’s actually his result in Japan that impressed me most. He went toe to toe with Vettel and won, it was a great drive.
His consistency and his understanding of the Pirelli tyres certainly contributed to his year, often being able to hunt people down in the later stages of the race such as in Brazil recently or in Monaco when he was catching both Alonso and Vettel. If McLaren can get their car ready from the start next year, Button will be up there again.
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 392pts; 11 wins – Eleven wins, six other podium positions, fifteen pole positions. Those are the statistics, and they made him a double world champion. But don’t think it’s just because he was in the best car, that helped of course, but often in the races the Red Bull advantage disappeared and he had to work for it.
His defensive driving on worn tyres in Spain and Monaco was superb and his fight and will to win was in evidence when he put two wheels on the grass in Italy around the outside of turn 3 to pass Alonso for the lead; an amazing move. His nursing of the car in Brazil while suffering a gearbox problem yet still finishing second was equally impressive.
He’s almost been perfect, the only person to have bested Button with the use of the Pirelli’s. He seemed to be the sole driver to find the grip at the start of races, often creating his gap in the early laps and then controlling that for the rest of the race while saving the car, albeit putting in the odd cheeky fastest lap attempt towards the end of the race.
He’s been fast, consistent, calm under pressure, obliterated his team mate, in short not one driver could have done a better job this year; a fantastic season and a great champion.

Best of the rest: driver countdown 28 to 11

So the season has ended, the dust is settling over in Brazil and Sebastian Vettel has come out on top for the second consecutive year. But who were the best drivers over the course of the year?
Twenty-eight drivers took part during the season, so here is a quick run down from 28 to 11, judging on how I think they performed given their cars.
28. Karun Chandok (Lotus) 0pts; Best Result (BR): 20th – One race wasn’t enough time, had problems and was four laps down at the end in his only appearance.
27. Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber) 0pts; BR: 14th – Fourteenth wasn’t a bad result in Canada as he replaced the injured Perez.
26. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT) 0pts; BR: 17th x 3 – Often behind his team mate, although in Indian race was impressive.
25. Jarno Trulli (Lotus) 0pts; BR: 13th x2 – Couldn’t have had a worse year, absolutely dominated by Kovalainen, looked demotivated and I’m surprised he’s even got a drive next year, although it’s looking debatable whether that’s a race drive or not.
24. Jerome d’Ambrosio (Virgin) 0pts; BR: 14th – On occasion looked good, but hasn’t done enough to retain his seat.
23. Tonio Liuzzi (HRT) 0pts; BR: 13th – Was once a bright talent, now I’m doubting he’ll be around next year.
22. Daniel Ricciardo (HRT) 0pts; BR: 18th x2 – Showed a great deal of promise but was he spectacular enough to deserve a potential seat at Toro Rosso as part of Red Bull’s young driver program?
21. Timo Glock (Virgin) 0pts; BR: 15th x2 – Generally quicker than d’Ambrosio, but another to look slightly ticked off with the struggle at the back.
20. Bruno Senna (Renault) 2pts; BR: 9th – Car was lacking development by the time he got in but still showed good speed in qualifying on occasion.
19. Nick Heidfeld (Renault) 34pts; BR: 3rd – It was wrong to get rid of him, replaced eight races from the end, Petrov still only outscored him by three points. Didn’t make enough use of the car he had at the start of the year though.
18. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1pt; BR: 10th – Drove brilliantly in Monaco before Lewis Hamilton used him as a brake losing sixth place. Often on the pace of his more experienced team mate.
17. Rubens Barrichello (Williams) 4pts; BR: 9th x2 – Still has the passion and the speed to be in Formula 1, dragged the Williams to more points than it probably deserved.
16. Vitaly Petrov (Renault) 37pts; BR: 3rd – He may have been in the top 10 in qualifying and he achieved a podium in Australia, but results haven’t been as forthcoming later in the year. By default after Robert Kubica’s rally crash he was team leader but I think there are better drivers than him to be filling that seat for next year.
15. Sergio Perez (Sauber) 14pts; BR: 7th – Looked quick all year and an impressive talent for the future, although more often than not results didn’t go his way. Dealt well with the bang to the head he received in Monaco to come back even stronger.
14. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) 30pts; BR: 5th – Scored more points than his team mate, but was often out qualified. Still made some daring moves in the races and had a number of back of the grid charges. However, it all went a bit quiet towards the end of the season.
13. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 118pts; BR: 5th x6 – What has happened to Massa? Probably the big bang on the head he received in Hungary 2009. There’s no way he should be so far behind Alonso, he’s a better driver than that. While his team mate grabbed podium after podium, Massa had to settle for several fifths as his best result of the year. Although mostly not his fault, his targeting of Lewis Hamilton after their many incidents looked more like he was trying to deflect attention away from how bad his own year was. Really needs to get back to the level he demonstrated in 08/09.
12. Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus) 0pts; BR: 13th – Here is a team player. He knew they were going to struggle and were still building up the team and dealt with it accordingly. Never less than enthusiastic about the future and where the team was heading, something other drivers at the back should take notice of and get a little perspective despite the frustrations. He trounced Trulli in qualifying and was even better in the races, often in the latter half of the year mixing it with the tail end of the mid-field. Great stuff, an integral part of this teams bright future.
11. Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) 15pts; BR: 8th x2 – I’ve got to say I’ve become a big fan of the Toro Rosso pair. Mostly they’ve been fighting for their seats the entire year, so the pressure was intense. Buemi had a number of great drives, the particular highlight in Hungary, finishing eighth from twenty-third on the grid. He lost a few other great results through no fault of his own and should get another year at the team, but I’m doubting whether that’ll be the case.
Top ten driver's can be found here.

Sunday 27 November 2011

Webber finally takes a win in finale


With all the talk of rain, it was actually quite a disappointment the clouds failed to burst; it would certainly have given the finale race in Brazil an extra kick in what wasn’t the thrilling spectacle that had been promised.  But that’s not to say there weren’t some moments to savour; Mark Webber was fast, consistent, and finally took a win this year. Alonso and Button fought hard for the final podium, little battles all down the field enlivened proceedings and the world champion delivered a champions drive.
It was great to see Webber finally make his mark on the season; claiming his seventh career victory and his second in Brazil and give a little light to a season in which he has been over shadowed by his team mate.

The Australian had run Sebastian Vettel pretty close all weekend, being just over a tenth off in qualifying to start second. He made his customary lousy start, but this time managed to fend off the attention of Jenson Button.
The early laps were all Vettel as usual. No one else can push the Pirelli tyres  at the start and yet still keep them fresh, it has been one of the hallmarks of his success this year. He was over two seconds ahead in just two laps and continued to inch out a gap.
Webber though was not for breaking today, he started to manage to peg the gap when an ominous radio message was sent to his team mate on lap 14. He had a gearbox problem and throughout the race was urged to short shift through gears two and three. Something he seemed to cope with very well as for at least the first part of the race his lap times remained constant.
All the teams anticipated a two stop race, but unexpectedly the tyres weren’t holding up as well as predicted; early stops from the front runners were duly executed with Vettel still in the lead. However, the gearbox gradually needed more love and care, an urgent message sent to him on lap 25 as Webber showed his interest for the win setting fastest lap.

Eventually the inevitable happened, Vettel let Webber through into turn 1 on lap 30, and the battle for victory was over. Mark demonstrated he was as quick as anyone out there today, reeling off fastest laps including the final lap of the race to take a well-deserved victory.
Vettel finished in second only 17 seconds behind, it kind of made you wonder if he could have fought harder for the win, as until the closing stages he remained fairly close behind. Red Bull boss Christian Horner has remarked they’d like to get Webber a win, but those thoughts are for suspicious minds.

In reality the team were amazed that Vettel even reached the finish, when they spotted the problem the original predictions had him only making half distance. But by instructing him to drive a certain way they were able to manage the problem and goes to further show just what a strong drive Vettel had.
Red Bull were more dominant today than they’d ever been, no one could really touch them, as the year ends on their fantastic success they go towards 2012 confident they can repeat it.
Passing moves of the race
Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso fought for the final podium spot of the year producing the outstanding moments of the race.

Alonso steadily moved his Ferrari into attack mode as we came into lap 11. Slip streaming the McLaren of Button down to turn 4, he tucks back in picking up the slipstream again through turn 5, edging ever closer, he pulls to the left. On the outside line, he whips round Button in a fantastic pass.
He soon scampered away but as is the story of the year for Ferrari as soon as he put on the harder tyre (this race it’s the medium compound) he couldn’t keep up the pace. Button actually preferred these tyres to the soft, using an extra set compared to most others.
Button wanted his own back, he couldn’t live with the pace of the Red Bull’s but he was sure going to finish best of the rest. After the final pit stops he had dropped behind the Ferrari to over five seconds, but immediately slashed into it.
Into lap 62 Button was brilliant. He’d tried a move the previous lap, seen what wasn’t working and set this one up perfectly. He pulled to the outside down the pit straight, forcing Alonso to go defensive into turn 1 taking a tighter line. This in turn slowed the Ferrari down through turns 2 and 3, whereas Button swept down on the wider line into the apex, exploiting his smoother turn in and accelerated onto the back of Alonso, activating the DRS down the following straight and sweeping past into third place.
Alonso’s move had been ballsy, Button’s was intelligently thought out, but both were brilliant, best action of the race.
Wheel banging and hugging

Michael Schumacher went back to wheel banging ways, although this time it wasn’t his fault, in fact it was probably just a racing incident as he and Bruno Senna in the Renault went for the same piece of road into turn 1. The stewards thought differently and sent Senna for a drive through penalty which coupled with a gearbox problem eventually ended him in 17th having started an impressive 9th. I think he’s done just enough to be given a chance to race next year.
Schumacher suffered a puncture in the incident, leaving him to crawl back to the pits for a whole lap. It meant he was lapped and his race was over, but despite this he fought back to 15th and again showed some good speed.
There was some good racing between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa today. On different strategies, Lewis had come out behind his nemesis of the year, but just as things were beginning to get a bit tasty, the McLaren was another one to be affected by gearbox problems, it seemed to be the day for it.
Massa ended up in a lonely 5th place, but I suppose that’s better than ending up in another accident and a trip to the stewards. It was nice to hear also that Hamilton went to visit Massa after the race to clear the air and share a hug after their many incidents this year.
Despite a disappointing race, Lewis seems to be in a positive frame of mind now, this gesture as well shows his determination to put this year behind him and begin a new more focused attack on 2012 and prove again that he’s the man to beat.
Adrian Sutil stars in final drive with Force India?

Adrian Sutil performed strongly today for Force India, he’s had a good end to the year and fought his way up to finish sixth passing Nico Rosberg for the place into turn 1, with a tight squeeze down the straight ensuring the Mercedes would stay behind.
He’s out performed his highly touted team mate Paul di Resta in the second half of the year and deserves a drive for 2012, however it looks likely he is to be dropped by his current team in favour of Nico Hulkenberg, the teams reserve driver.
I’ve a feeling he’ll end up at Williams after discussions with Kimi Raikkonen came to nothing. He should be in Formula 1, especially after performances like today, he was hooked up, consistent with his lap times; one of the stars of the race.
Rest of the top 10
Rosberg continued his aptitude for finishing lower than where he started with a 7th place finish from 6th in qualifying. A two stop strategy didn’t really work for him and he was easy meat for Sutil.
In the other Force India di Resta climbed from 11th to 8th finishing with another helping of points to cap a fine debut season. With a year’s experience I expect him to fly next year, let’s not forget di Resta beat Vettel in the lower formulae, this guy has talent.
Kamui Kobayashi takes his second consecutive points finish to round off the year nicely and ensure his Sauber team maintained their 7th position in the constructors championship over Toro Rosso.
Vitaly Petrov grabbed the final point after climbing from 15th on the grid. Disappointing final half of the season for Renault in general, the team have claimed only 5 points since Nick Heidfeld left the team before Belgium.

Special mention to Rubens Barrichello who finished 14th, this is potentially his last ever race. He’s still looking for a drive to continue into his 20th consecutive season in the sport and add to his 326 races, it would be a shame for this to be his swansong as the passion still burns strong and he’s as quick as ever.
End of the road
And so we come to the end of the 2011 season, a year which despite one man’s domination has provided tremendous racing from Australia to Brazil. We’ve had wheel to wheel action aplenty, provided by Pirelli and the DRS zones, which have proved beneficial mostly even if slightly artificial.
We’ve had grudge matches, intense chases, action packed spectaculars, strategic thrillers, but it all mostly ended up with the same result; Sebastian Vettel, winner. 2011 has been Vettel’s year; a record 15 pole positions in one year, 11 wins, only twice off the podium.
He may have had the best car, but he crushed his team mate, learnt and used the new Pirelli tyres better than anyone else, handled any pressure thrown at him, and was as fast as anyone out there and even showed us how good he is at overtaking; no one could have done it better and that’s why he is now double world champion.


all photos taken from autosport.com

Saturday 26 November 2011

BBC vs Sky

The BBC has announced the plans for their scaled down Formula 1 coverage next year. You can find the full details here on the BBC website.
In short the BBC will show ten races live including all practice and qualifying sessions, with the other potential ten having race highlights packages of 90 minutes for European races and 2hours for early race starts.
Now I’m a firm believer in watching sports events live, but the BBC are not just going to cover the non-live races from a Manchester studio, they’re still sending what seems like a full presentation team to all races.
What concerns me about that is that when they’re going to the expense of flying their staff over to the races then obviously they’ll be a fair amount of pre-race coverage and post-race analysis, otherwise what would be the point? But is that really needed when the event will have been shown on Sky Sports hours earlier, with many viewers perhaps knowing the result already?
And if you have deliberately avoided the result, surely you’ll want as much of the race covered as possible to have as much as a live experience as you can in the current circumstances, assuming many F1 fans don’t buy into the Sky Sports package, costing as it does £40 a month.
Another thing to strike me is the races the BBC have picked to cover live. Now the two broadcasters took it in turns to pick  which events they wanted to broadcast or have exclusivity for, it seems the BBC have ended up with the short straw.
They’ve ended up with both the Spanish races, which with no disrespect intended aren’t traditionally the most thrilling in the world. However, BBC only viewers do get Monaco, Britain, Belgium and the final race of the season in Brazil covered live, although having said that it takes until the third race in China for live BBC coverage to start.
The BBC has provided the best Formula 1 coverage I have ever seen, brilliantly in depth, and that’ll at least continue ten times a year. They’re certain to maintain a lot of their current team, Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard are definite BBC men.
However, Martin Brundle looks likely to make a move to Sky, and pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz is rumoured to be joining him there. With a dedicated Formula 1 channel being announced for Sky, it looks like they’re going all out to create a truly immersive Formula 1 experience, although full details of their coverage have yet to be announced, but the likes of Brundle and Kravitz will be tempted at such opportunity.
It remains to be seen whether a dual commentary role could be applied for both Sky and BBC’s coverage as it would be a shame to split Brundle and Coulthard who have made a brilliant impression in their first year together, although again the likely rumour to be true is the David Croft from the BBC radio 5 live commentary team will be the lead commentator.
Sky has yet to confirm their presentation team or the full details of their coverage but at the price, a dedicated channel is definitely a good start.
However, is that enough for the average fan of which there are many? The BBC has recorded record figures with at least six million people tuning in regularly. I speculate that many won’t buy into Sky if they don’t already have it, and viewing figures will take a dive. It could drive many regular fans away whom are unhappy at the reduced terrestrial coverage and the potential separation of the BBC team which has welcomed many new people to the sport.
Overall despite the money Sky look like spending on their coverage, and it does look very promising, it still seems a shame that a compromise deal wasn’t reached with another terrestrial channel. Or even an option from Sky to sell each race at £5-£10 wouldn’t be as off-putting as the full £40 whack on the wallet.
But for now all that can be said is that Sky have a lot to live up to the award winning BBC team, although I have no doubt they’ll do a superb job in the end and there is still a lot to be decided by both broadcasters, but it still feels a bit like the British fans have been slightly short changed. We’ll see how it all pans out from Australia 2012.

Anyway the BBC aren't finished quite yet, with rain forecast for Brazil tomorrow it could be quite an action packed send off for their full live coverage!

edit: Martin Brundle has confirmed he is off to Sky next year. Not really a surprise, but it does give Sky instant credibility for their coverage from the start.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Hamilton stars in Abu Dhabi


Abu Dhabi is one of the most impressive race tracks on the Formula 1 calendar at the moment. The dusk to night time setting makes for some beautiful shots of the cars as the light reflects off them in to the blackening sky. And as night came calling Lewis Hamilton shone through the gloom to take a dominant victory in the Middle East and put the smile back on his face.
He knows he’s one of the top drivers and before it’s been a source of much frustration that as he’s struggled with underperforming cars for the last few years Sebastian Vettel has racked up the wins and pole positions.
But this was a chance to finally start afresh, to banish the mistakes and worries of the year to the dark. This win could see the launch of a redeemed Lewis Hamilton, one who has come out the other side and is ready to establish himself as the best out there again. He’d talked a lot to the media over the weekend, being very open about his feelings this season; it was like he’d managed to exorcise his demons.
His performance over the whole weekend certainly gave you the impression of a man refocused, he was quick from the off, unlucky not to get pole position and didn’t make a mistake all weekend.
On race day he was in the lead after turn 2 when Sebastian Vettel suffered a rare bit of bad luck in the shape of a puncture and then remained calm under consistent pressure from Fernando Alonso.
He looked after the tyres which were anyhow not degrading fast, but he put in good laps when he changed to the harder medium compound at the second stops to keep a last ditch bid for victory by Alonso at bay, from then on he looked fairly serene to record his third victory of the year.
He was absolutely elated, there was no controversy, Felipe Massa was a long way behind, just intense fast driving that delivered the top result for his team; ‘so glad I could do this for you’, he said on the radio, words which show how much of a relief it is for him to get back to winning ways.
Even if Vettel hadn’t retired Lewis looked like he had the pace to win today, a great performance and one which looks like could put him back on track, let’s hope it’s not a one off, as an on form Lewis Hamilton will certainly give Vettel something to think about for next year.
Alonso drags his Ferrari to another fine result
Alonso has delivered great performances all year, dragging his Ferrari to positions it really shouldn’t be in. If you compare his results to his team mate it really says it all; Fernando has one win and nine other podiums, while Massa’s top result has been five fifths.
Throughout practice and qualifying Ferrari didn’t look like contenders but on race day, yet again Alonso was there battling as hard as you like. His start was good, out dragging Mark Webber, and he slip streamed past Jenson Button on that opening lap too. He expected to be defending for the rest of the race but instead he was attacking. He even came close to snatching a win as they approached the second and final round of pit stops.
With Hamilton having pitted on lap 41 to the slower medium compound, Alonso stayed out on his worn soft tyres, but had done a great job in conserving them. He’d already brought the gap down to under 3 seconds and could now sense a victory.
He knew his car wouldn’t be as good as the McLaren on the harder tyre so needed track position, a gap of 22 seconds would do it and it almost came off. 21 seconds ahead he pitted on lap 44 just as an HRT did too, it blocked him and cost him time. His pit stop was slow at 5.5 seconds and he exited behind the McLaren. But it was an impressive fight in a battle that he shouldn’t have been in.
After saying he’d given up in Korea, it’s clear to see he hasn’t. His response has been what you’d expect from a double world champion. Just give him the car to compete and he’ll be up there fighting for all he’s worth.
The rest of the top 10
Apart from the top two, there was no real stand out performances down the field nor anything remarkable about the race, there was some good racing in the two DRS zones but they were too close together.
Admittedly in taking third place Jenson Button did a fine job to deal with his KERS being off for half the race, but in truth I’m not sure he had the pace to fight for the win; still, it was another good result and it confirms him as Hamilton’s first team mate to beat him over a season.
Mark Webber probably had a little smile on his face as Red Bull lost its lead driver on the first lap. Perhaps he thought he could be in with a shot at the win. But again he lost positions at the start, and despite an entertaining scrap with Button, lost position to him at the end as he went for a three stop strategy, pitting on the last lap; after that fourth is all he could have hoped for.
Felipe Massa lost his regular play mate this race, so had to settle for spinning on his own. He had a good fight with Webber and Button but his spin relegated him to his equal best result of the year in fifth. He once had the speed to be a threat, it’s such a shame he can’t use it anymore; he’ll be hoping for more in Brazil.
Sixth and seventh was the Mercedes-Benz duo. Michael Schumacher got ahead of Nico Rosberg at the start but Nico was in determined mood after being soundly beaten by his older team mate in India. Despite being squeezed by Schumacher, Rosberg managed to push through on that opening lap and wasn’t troubled thereafter. Ran a long last stint to be in third at one point, but had to pit and still ended up 20 seconds ahead of Schuey.
For once Michael didn’t have the pace of his team mate today, in truth he wasn’t even close. A nice battle with Sutil ended in his favour after the second pit stops, and from then on it was fairly lonely for him. Schumacher goes well in Brazil, he’ll not want to let Rosberg ahead of him again.
The Force India’s were next up. Adrian Sutil managed to stay in contention with the Mercedes cars using the regular two stop strategy to end up eighth. His team mate did well to still secure ninth after being hampered by a one stop route which required him to run on the medium tyre for over half the race. This compound is around a second slower than the soft. Probably could have beaten Sutil otherwise.
Finally Kamui Kobayashi for Sauber charged back from another disappointing qualifying position of 16th (five places behind his rookie team mate Sergio Perez) to grab the final point. It probably would have gone to Perez if he hadn’t had to change his nose cone. Kobayashi needed a good result after seven races with no points.
Vettel in bad luck shocker!
So finally something major went wrong for Sebastian Vettel. He had taken a brilliant pole position on Saturday, his 14th of the year to equal Nigel Mansell’s record of most poles taken in one season, it was a great lap given the pace the McLaren’s looked to have.
Vettel knew it would be tough on Sunday, McLaren’s long practice runs indicated a very competitive race pace, so he was aware he’d have to push hard on the opening laps to get a one second lead to avoid being in the DRS detection zone.
He made a good start, and stormed through turn one, running over the outside kerb as he’d been doing all weekend. Into turn 2 his right rear tyre suddenly lost all pressure and collapsed sending him spinning out of control. Four hours after the race Pirelli still don’t know what caused it.
He got back to the pits but it was game over, his wheel rim destroyed, there was to be no comeback charge. It was a shame for the race really, because it would have been nice to have a proper head to head battle with an on form Lewis Hamilton, but it wasn’t to be.
He looked very annoyed immediately after realising he couldn’t continue, showing his continued passion for wins, it’ll make him even more determined for Brazil to round off his season in style.
And so on to the final race . . .
As we head to Sao Paulo, there is certainly going to be a party atmosphere for the last race of the season, Brazil loves its Formula 1 and it generally provides one of the most entertaining races of the year.
There’s still much to resolve too, second place in the driver’s championship is still open, while intra team battles need to be resolved, as well as constructor’s championship positions. The battle for sixth between Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso is very close.
Each driver will want to go into 2012 with a positive last result, even with the championship over; no one wants to lose, so it’ll be gloves off to take the last blood of the season. I’ve got a feeling Lewis Hamilton will be the most determined to lay a marker for next year, he’ll want to prove he’s back to his best.
all photos by autosport.com